1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system and method of visually providing the current status of selected frequencies of particular interest to the user of an entertainment system and in particular, of a vehicle entertainment system.
2. Discussion
Consumers today have ever increasing choices for how to interact with the content provided through audio-visual entertainment systems including vehicle entertainment systems. Consumers of entertainment content increasingly demand the ability to quickly select and listen to only desirable content, which until now has been difficult to do with traditional radio receivers. The demand for easy and quick selection of desirable content can be traced to the proliferation of mass storage devices which allow consumers to store only desirable content and to quickly select which of that desirable content to listen to. In contrast, radio receivers in entertainment systems, in particular vehicle entertainment systems, allow no selection of content by the consumer except by the changing of frequencies to a different station.
Traditional radio receivers such as those found in vehicles were originally manually tuned and difficult to change between frequencies to different stations. As radio receivers added preset buttons and the ability of tuners to repeatably lock onto a particular station without additional adjustment by the user improved, and consumers could quickly change channels or frequencies between different stations or content sources. These quick changes improved the ability of consumers to change content sources but the consumer still was never able to predetermine before switching whether the content on a different station was more desirable than the existing channel or frequency. Even after radio receivers became digitized with digital tuners and digital displays, a user typically had to scan through multiple presets until content more desirable than the original content was found. For example, upon a start of a commercial from a first radio station, a user would select different presets associated with other favorite radio stations, which tuned the tuner to the stored preset frequency associated with the preset button. The user manually tunes the radio through multiple preset buttons until a radio station having more desirable content was found. The user had no knowledge of the status of the content on the other radio stations, such as if the other stations are playing music, or are also playing commercials.
Some manufacturers have added data signals that provide the user with information on the type of content provided on the station as well as information on the current song, but the user must be tuned to that station to determine the status of the current content. More specifically, no system or method exists that allows a user to easily and visually predetermine, with minimum distraction, the status of content being provided on other stations.